Pests, Diseases and Cures

For training the roots down, in nine when I notice a new one starting I take a 2 litre pop bottle that has had the very top ( the stiff bit) and bottom cut off (and a cut right up the side so it opens out) and open it out then let go ( gently) so it wraps the plant, position it so the emerging...

I'll put some in the post for you then.

Well I think you will struggle to get agood looking plant out of that, they shouldn't sell stuff like that. Its alive but the dead bits wont recover so cut them off by all means.

I use butterfly netting over all my brassicas, even so one or two find their way in. Rub off the eggs before the blighters hatch.

It's probably going to drop those leaves as a reaction to the drying out, but I would leave it and new shoots may well start sprouting from the leaf axils. Just give it TLC for a while!

Thanks for the reply. Yes there is a stone forming in the fruit. Think it may be Plum Brown Spot fungal infection but not sure. Didn’t want to destroy a mature tree if there was another way of dealing with it.

This evening I noticed these wasp like creatures on a Rose in our garden:-A Google search suggested these are probably Large Rose Sawfly, laying eggs inside the stems of fresh new growth.Assuming this is Large Rose Sawfly, has there been a particularly large outbreak of them this year? I am...

Update; There's tonnes of aphids on it too could the 2 things be connected?

You did say it had wings.....but not red or bovine

@NigelJ thank you so much for that

Thanks for the tip.

Well, I can remember using smokes and moving everything out the greenhouse, then putting it all back in those days the only ingredient I can remember was gamma HCH, whatever that was, never used sulphur. The spider used to still be there hanging around in the corners so I decided it was a total...

Boiling water and Deathlac. Now they are moved on I am left with rock hard ground and lawn treatment.

Thanks, yes, I'm in a hard water area, but we've had this plant for about 9 years and it's been very healthy for most of that time, it's only this season that it's looking a bit yellowy. I've given it a sea weed feed, so hopefully any deficiencies will be covered.

Thanks @NigelJ I’ll keep my fingers crossed

I suspect that your current weather this year has not helped. I suspect that the plant broke dormancy early and then temperatures "crashed". Reviewing the day's low for April and May, there have been days when the evening lows got very cold... as recent as May 12 and May 14. If your plant broke...

Thanks everybody!Now that you mentioned it, I remember reading about slugs feeding on slugs, but I had forgotten. However, reading about it, the RHS seems to deem them beneficial, while a US association still classifies them as pests, because apparently they can also eat young growth. I think...

Looks a bit like damping off, fungal problem mostly due to not enough ventilation and soggy compost.Are you letting the surface dry out before watering.Think I would be mixing some sharp sand in with that compost.

Well, are the roots really that near the surface, if they are then its probably best left. Cant see a real problem with the base of the tree apart from that piece of bark missing.

Yes, they will be fungus flies and they come in the compost, find its the pots from the garden centers that seem to be the culprits, but could be your bags of compost as well.The best way to rid them is to drench every plant / pot and compost in the house in one go.You need to make up a...